Pink Tie
by Ablissad
Summary: After the adventure, everyone's cleaning up Kaim's and Sarah's old house for the happy family to move back in. Who knows what you can find in a place that hasn't been cleaned in thirty years. One-shot


Disclaimer: If I owned Lost Odyssey I'd have a PS3. Which I don't, so no, I don't own Lost Odyssey. And I don't own the cleaning solution BAM either

A/N: Some LO humor and friendship-yness, yay! (Trust me; I've been waiting for it too) The only thing I had trouble with is when Sarah said they moved back into Lirum's old house, I wondered whether she meant Lirum's old house in Numara, or Lirum's old house in Tosca. Since we saw the Northern Cape in the end, I'm gonna say Tosca. And the title, instead of Black Tie it's Pink Tie, get it? Yeah, you'll see.

It was amazing how dilapidated a house could become in thirty years. Especially thirty years of having magical creatures running amok throughout the already old mansion. Sarah seemed ashamed of herself upon returning to the house, upset that she had let their old home go to ruins so quickly. Kaim assured her that with her immense sadness there had been no way to prevent this from happening she'd been so delirious. These words didn't receive good response and Sarah almost locked him into her old hermitage for the night.

Kaim saved himself from this fate only by convincing her that none of them held anything against her. Convincing her that any of them could have done the same had their daughter died. At which she pointed out Lirum was his daughter too. He finally won by saying he didn't even remember her or Lirum until Cooke and Mack took him to their house, which he almost refused.

This finally convinced Sarah to start returning the house to its former glory. Or letting Ming, Jansen, Sed, Tolten Cooke, Mack and Kaim return the house to its former glory. Shortly after the work had begun the group learned that whenever Sarah found something that brought on a sad memory, a group of monsters would swarm to them. So much to Sarah's displeasure, she was forced to sit still and think happy thoughts until all the monsters had been cleared out of the place.

By the time they had cleaned up all the cobwebs and sorted out what could stay and what could go, Ming was certain that all the creatures had been cleared out. Sarah happily helped Ming clean off the walls of the two hallways that had about three inches of dust covering them.

"Maybe we should just get some BAM." Sarah muttered, staring at the puddle of dirt water left on the floor from their many gentle Aqua spells.

Ming shook her head, "I saw a mop around here somewhere." She said, opening one of the hall closets that had thankfully been ghost-busted a long time ago. "See?" she said pulling out the mop.

Ming handed it off to Sarah.

Kaim stood in the foyer, wondering what exactly he could do with the collapsed staircase. Mack and Tolten stood by his side, at his disposal for when he finally decided.

"Let's clear the rubble and see how much damage there's been." He commanded walking up the stairs.

Jansen sat with Cooke in the hallway that held the Mirror to the Past. They wanted to cover it up as soon as possible to avoid time travel. Jansen's first thought was to remove the jewel that had started the mirror running. Upon realizing he was too short to put the jewel in, his next thought was to break the mirror. To which Cooke pointed out anything he threw into the mirror would just come out on the other side. So this left Jansen with his last choice.

"Can you reach it yet?" Jansen asked, holding Cooke's feet as they unsteadily sat on his shoulders.

"Almost, why don't you jump?" Cooke asked, her fingers about six inches short of the jewel.

"Jump?! I've got about ninety pounds on my shoulders, I'm not jumping!" Jansen exclaimed stubbornly.

"Fine then, let me stand on your head." Cooke said, raising a foot shakily to place it on top of Jansen's head.

"Wha-? Hey, ow!" he exclaimed again as Cooke finally reached the jewel and successfully pulled it out.

"Got it!" Cooke exclaimed, just as her feet began to slip.

Luckily for Cooke, someone else had just entered the room. Unluckily for Jansen, it was Kaim. Kaim ran forward just in time to catch his falling granddaughter. Jansen turned around, ready to explain. Though the unspoken sternness in Kaim's eyes let Jansen to know to keep his mouth shut or Kaim just might pin him up against the wall again.

"Thanks Kaim." Cooke said, putting her two feet back on the ground before returning to cleaning the house up.

"Come on Jansen, we're cleaning up the two bedrooms." Kaim stated, turning around, Jansen happily following, glad he hadn't been stuffed in a closet or forced to clean the walls with his tongue.

The room was in much better shape than the staircase had been, the only problem some cobwebs and dust like all the rooms within the old mansion. Kaim pulled out some boxes that obviously needed to be sorted. Jansen wished he was still cleaning up the hallway now.

"Help me go through these." Kaim muttered, beginning to go through the old junk.

Mostly clothes were in there, a few books here and there. Maybe an old photo. Minutes went by and Jansen had about gone on auto-pilot. Pictures stay, Books stay, clothes go… Until his hands found something very strange.

"What the hell is this?" Jansen questioned, pulling out a pale pink tuxedo with two frilly pieces of fabric protruding from the chest.

Kaim looked up, his face revealing nothing as he stared at the familiar tuxedo.

"This isn't _yours_, is it?" Jansen asked, his mouth twisting into a poorly held back smirk.

"_You don't actually expect me to wear that do you?" he mumbled in disbelief, staring at the pink tuxedo Sarah was holding in her hands._

"_I offered to let you come shopping with me, Kaim." Sarah reminded him, trying to hold back a smile as she placed the tuxedo on the bed._

"_So you're punishing me." Kaim muttered, still unable to take his eyes of the pink monstrosity lying on his bed._

"_No, I honestly thought you'd like it." Sarah claimed innocently, her less than innocent smile giving her away though._

"_I'm not wearing that, especially not to my wedding." He muttered defiantly._

"_Oh Kaim, please?" Sarah pleaded, pulling him towards her so he was staring down into her eyes._

_Kaim stayed silent for a few moments, trying to find some way out of wearing that thing. But seeing Sarah's pleading eyes were enough to make him cave._

"_Fine." He mumbled, tearing his eyes away from her._

"That was a lot pinker the last time I saw it." He stated grimacing at the sight of the old tuxedo.

"So it is yours!" Jansen laughed, "How old is this thing?" he questioned.

"Seven decades older than you give or take a few years." Kaim murmured, continuing to sort through the clothes.

"You didn't marry Sarah in this, did you?" Jansen asked, completely abandoning his work.

Kaim stayed silent, drawing choked laughter from Jansen.

"Will you put it-" Jansen began.

"No." Kaim stated firmly, not even giving Jansen a chance to finish.

"But-"

"No." Kaim repeated, louder this time.

Jansen frowned, "Just once, and I'll never mention it again." Jansen pleaded.

"If you and Ming ever get married I'll wear that to your wedding. Now please, shut up." Kaim bargained through gritted teeth, trying his best to get Jansen to close his perpetually loose lips.

Jansen nodded, returning to his work.

Needless to say, a year later when Jansen and Ming announced their engagement, Kaim was less than joyful.

"Crap!" he exclaimed loudly, forcing everyone in the room to turn and look at him.

Jansen was smiling like some lunatic newly released from the funny farm by now. Kaim stormed off, cursing suits and the color pink.

"What was that all about?" Cooke asked, looking over at Sarah.

Sarah shook her head.

"Kaim just lost a bet." Jansen explained.

The room filled with silence before Cooke spoke.

"We don't have to call you Uncle Jansen now do we?" Cooke questioned, staring at him.

"No, King Jansen is fine."

Cooke frowned, kicking him in the shin.

"Ow, what was that for?" Jansen whined, rubbing his injured shin.

"Being annoying." Cooke said simply.

"I'm beginning to think you're just looking for an excuse to kick me." Jansen muttered, putting weight back on his recently injured leg.

"Just because you're marrying Aunt Ming doesn't mean I have to stop kicking you. Does it?" Cooke asked, looking over at Ming.

She stayed silent for a minute or two, contemplating her options. "No, it's fine Cooke." She confirmed.

"Ming!" Jansen whined again.

* * *

"So, Kaim, do you still regret betting on Jansen and Ming's future?" Sarah asked him as Jansen and Ming walked down the aisle to the altar.

Kaim stared at Jansen's nervous smile and watched him walk to the altar. Kaim's mouth broke into a smile as Jansen opened his mouth to speak and his voice resounded throughout the building, high pitched and shrill. He shook his head.

"Whatever makes this day more memorable for him is worth it." Kaim murmured softly as Ming herself stated 'I do' without any hesitation.

Kaim applauded like everyone else in the building the smile spreading.

Sarah smiled remembering the reason she'd brought him that tuxedo in the first place. Decked out in pink, even Kaim couldn't help but smile.

A/N: I know, I don't pull off funny very well. Though the thought of Sarah locking Kaim in her old hermitage makes me smile.


End file.
